Will Guzmán: Schomburg knew the value of black history

4:57 PM,
Feb. 8, 2013

Will Guzman

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Will Guzmán
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Arturo Schomburg (1874-1938), a writer, law clerk, patron of the arts, curator, lecturer, intellectual, translator, leader of several scholarly organizations, educator, social activist and Mason, was nicknamed the "Sherlock Holmes of black History" by historian Joel A. Rogers.

Schomburg was widely respected as one of the leading authorities on black history in the world at a time when few people even acknowledged that such a history existed. He was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and ultimately became the 20th century's most famous bibliophile and collector of Africana sources.